Cape Town Drought Update
By Paul Homewood
It was only a few short months ago that we were assured Cape Town was facing a national disaster, because of the drought:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-43047833
And we were left in no uncertain terms that climate change was to blame:
https://www.sapeople.com/2018/01/25/helen-zille-bbc-weather-experts-got-wrong-due-climate-change/
Fast forward to today, and we find that Cape Town’s major dams have double the water of a year ago, and are 56% full:
Indeed, dam levels are almost as high as the same date in 2015, and much higher than 2016:
In the last 12 months, water storage has risen by 261,000 ML.
Although water usage has been cut by about 200 ML since March, this would only account for about 28000 ML.
So it seems it was not climate change after all!!
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
“So it seems it was not climate change after all!!”
NONSENSE! The unprecedented rains of the last few months have clearly resulted form global warming. Droughts and, er, unprecedented rainfall are precisely what has been modelled, I mean forecast, er projected er…
-And in my time (40 odd years – some VERY odd) in South Africa, we’ve had at least 3 droughts. And every time, after up to 3 years, it has broken with LOTS of rain. One particular break (1984 – I had to look it up) was terminated by Cyclone ‘Demoina’, which sort-of flooded out a large part of the coastal Kwa-Zulu/Natal.
Yep – definitely Climate Change(TM)!
Of course anyone with any common sense would have checked the history of the area and realised that the Drought was nothing new at all.
Cape Town’s problems were never about global climate change – rather, they were about something that is truly global but never seems to change – the utter incompetence, ineptitude and dishonesty of politicians.
Will the BBC issue an update? I’m holding my breath.
And today it was announced on BBC radio that a study into European heat waves had been conducted. It seems we are to go from one every ten years to one every 3 years……or something like that, because of global warming.
I just spent a week at home in the Campsie hills where it was a glorious 25C. Lush vegetation, pure air, and a comfortable daytime temperature.I watched a Golden Eagle, mobbed by crows at tree height. I didn’t believe it was an Eagle until it escaped from it’s hiding place and gracefully spiralled into the sky on the thermals until it was beyond the naked eyes ability to see it.
I mentioned it to the local RSPB station and I was scoffed, because of course, Golden Eagles only occupy a more northerly pattern.They couldn’t deny it though because I described it’s activities, and I have probably seen more GE’s than they ever will.
I couldn’t help but wonder if this is yet another strange benefit of global warming.
If this is a consequence of global warming, I’m all for it. And if Scotland gets this bountiful weather, how might Canada or Siberia benefit from the benefits of warming, releasing billions of acres of frozen tundra to agriculture.
Next year it’ll piss down in the Campsie’s though, and doubtless for the next ten years, like the last ten years, until our next ‘unprecedented’ heatwave.
Alarmist’s suck the simple pleasures from anything they touch.
According to Matt McGragh in the Telegraph, Scottie, a heatwave has now been defined as 3 hot days in a row (or some such tosh). No surprise at all, therefore, that we are seeing more of them.
By the by, I hope your Campsies eagle story is accurate as I will be up there next weekend. I believe you, not only because you are clearly a very fine chap, but because the Campsies are so close to the eagles’ normal range that a sighting is perfectly possible. Of course, if global warming has actually happened, their range would have moved north. It hasn’t.
Apologies – that was Matt McGrath and he has been writing nonsense on the BBC website.
From a distance, I keep telling people that in the UK, if it hasn’t rained in 10 days – it’s a drought! Mind you, there can be the opposite. In Manchester, I used to drive to work past a factory with a ‘wanted’ sign for ‘waterproof machinists’. I always wondered what the working conditions must have been like…